birthday gift for 3 y o partially sighted child?

[surprise]

Any suggestions? Can't spend too much (about £5) but want to get something that he'll really enjoy and am completely stumped.

The are some great books by usbourne called 'thats not my...puppy / tractor etc.' with lovely textures and bold pictures they may have some already but you could ask the parents which ones they haven't got.
or A CD with nursey rhymes on
or sensory play stuff there is some lovely foot crakling cream from scholl party feet range which is great fun for after a bath

peachgirl - love the sound of the foot cream! will go and search it out. great idea about feely books too.

thanks to you too hausfrau - he already has one of those, and they are fab!

actually some of the world cup stuff thats in shops could work, sainsburys has a soft ball that laghs /cheers when you throw it. M and S stuff like this too

Does he have a xylophone already? If he does, something else musical?

surprise how much sight does the child have? You say he is partially sighted, so it's possible he may be able to see well enough for certain things, how about some crayons and stencils, that way if he can't see well enough to draw his own pictures he can at least draw ones with stencils if that makes sense? I know to some it might sound kind of strange that a child with limited sight might want to draw, but he probably would like to do the same things all his friends do. When I was a child I had crayons, water colours, stencils, ... and bynoculars! Who knows why I wanted those but I wanted them and my mum bought them for me, just cheap kids ones but none the less ... and I have no sight at all, so for a child who has some sight he might like crayons, :)

Alternatively magic maze from early learning is fun, musical instruments are always great - early learning do lots of different ones for under £5, not sure the parents will thank you for those though lol.

What about a big plastic pot, some seeds and a little trowel? You could get some scented seeds or sunflowers which grwo really big. they will enjoy planting and geting tactile with the compost and then seeing the plants grow.

these all sound like such good ideas, I'll have to store some away for Christmas! he can see well enough to run around in the garden, but his vision is very limited in dim light. he has a light box courtesy of the local rnib which he loves. I'm spoilt for choice now - might go with the seeds/pot and a musical instrument.